Ask Slashdot: Could Linux Ever Become Fully Compatible With Windows and Mac Software? 359
dryriver writes: Linux has been around for a long time now. A lot of work has gone into it; it has evolved nicely and it dominates in the server space. Computer literate people with some tech skills also like to use it as their desktop OS. It's free and open source. It's not vendor-locked, full of crapware or tied to any walled garden. It's fast and efficient. But most "everyday computer users" or "casual computer buyers" still feel they have to choose either a Windows PC or an Apple device as the platform they will do their computing on. This binary choice exists largely because of very specific commercial list of programs and games available for these OSs that is not available for Linux.
Here is the question: Could Linux ever be made to become fully compatible with all Windows and Mac software? What I mean is a Linux distro that lets you successfully install/run/play just about anything significant that says "for Windows 10" or "for OSX" under Linux, without any sort of configuring or crazy emulation orgies being needed? Macs and PCs run on the exact same Intel/AMD/Nvidia hardware as Linux. Same mobos, same CPUs and GPUs, same RAM and storage devices. Could Linux ever be made to behave sufficiently like those two OSs so that a computer buyer could "go Linux" without any negative consequences like not being able to run essential Windows/Mac software at all? Or is Linux being able to behave like Windows and OSX simply not technically doable because Windows and OSX are just too damn complex to mimic successfully?
Here is the question: Could Linux ever be made to become fully compatible with all Windows and Mac software? What I mean is a Linux distro that lets you successfully install/run/play just about anything significant that says "for Windows 10" or "for OSX" under Linux, without any sort of configuring or crazy emulation orgies being needed? Macs and PCs run on the exact same Intel/AMD/Nvidia hardware as Linux. Same mobos, same CPUs and GPUs, same RAM and storage devices. Could Linux ever be made to behave sufficiently like those two OSs so that a computer buyer could "go Linux" without any negative consequences like not being able to run essential Windows/Mac software at all? Or is Linux being able to behave like Windows and OSX simply not technically doable because Windows and OSX are just too damn complex to mimic successfully?
Yes and No (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Yes and No (Score:5, Interesting)
The question is malformed. Will Windows and Mac ever be made compatible with Linux?
Windows 10 has implemented Linux system calls. You can run Linux apps on Windows.
Re: Yes and No (Score:4, Interesting)
I suppose the goal is 'can linux desktop become the universal application platform' and the answer is theoretically yes, practically, no.
For OSX apps, there hasn't even been much of an interest in theory. GNUstep had an injection of liveliness for people wanting to make at least code compile for OSX and Linux, but that enthusiasm died out. It never ever began to think about binary compatibility.
For Windows apps, sure, wine has been doing it's job admirably, but it's chasing a moving target that has much more resources than it does.
Now the phenomenon you mention speaks to another possibility: kernel system call emulation and just use the Windows/OSX system as-is. This is of limited utility as there isn't a supported/licensed way to do this. It's one thing to borrow the userspace of a free operatiing system, but doesn't really work for closed-source applications.
Re: Yes and No (Score:2)
I don't call this emulation, just like wine is not an emulator. It is a implementation of the Linux system calls.
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Emulation of the system calls. Rather than emulation of CPU and hardware. Same concept, but line draw at a different layer.
The overhead of something like 'wine' is very low, compared to something like qemu or even VMware. Which I think is the point that was trying to be made, rather than any semantics about the definition of emulator. (in my industry most of these are called simulators, and emulation is a different beast all together)
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FreeBSD already has Linux binary compatibility [freebsd.org], but that's helped a lot by the fact that the FreeBSD team has access to the source and can even re-use some of the code if they want.
So if you want similar functionality for MS Windows, a big step would be having a copy of the code to build it from, but not 100% necessary. There is a lot of API documentation out there, so as Microsoft forces programs to actually use documented features and not take shortcuts (currently in the name of security), it's likely to
Re: Yes and No (Score:4, Informative)
There is Linux syscall emulation on NT kernel and on L4 kernel already. And I used the Linux-compatibility in LynxOS back in the day for an RTOS project.
FreeBSD/NetBSD carried a lot over from the older iBCS (Intel Binary Compatibility Standard) to provide Linux compatibility. NetBSD is interesting in that it still supports really old 386BSD binaries.
Windows compatible is harder than Linux compatible. You can start from wine, Longene or ReactOS, but really unless you have the resources of Microsoft and their level of internal documentation it's not going to go well for you. But feel free to run your Linux binaries on Windows 10, it does work as advertised.
Re: Yes and No (Score:5, Informative)
Also it depends on what you call "Windows software". You won't have great success with consumer software on the GUI stack, but server software is a different story nowadays. Command line is much better and Microsoft has taken big steps to making Windows Server headless. PowerShell and .NET Core now run on Linux. And ASP.NET Core is cross-platform for hosting web applications.
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I just don't see this trend accelerating becoming more dominant than it already has. People still use their desktop applications all the time. My work has *repeatedly* tried to make people use brwoser hosted apps and time and time again they find whatever contortion required to open in a desktop app. Some people won't go and not all applications work out well that way.
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What X server on Windows 10 (Score:3)
Windows 10 has implemented Linux system calls. You can run Linux apps on Windows.
Using what X server, if the app happens to be graphical? Microsoft doesn't provide one, and the free version of Xming hasn't been updated in a decade. Or would the app run in a localhost web server, with JavaScript in a web browser handling user interaction?
Re:What X server on Windows 10 (Score:4, Interesting)
One day a VM or container will contain enough guts to safely run the apps in less than a hypervisor mode. Until then, the answer for all three is: Not really. Better still, it shouldn't happen. One flaw in Windows affects Windows, but rarely MacOS or Linux/BSDs. One well-done flaw can kill/maim one host, but not all three.
We survive.
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Have you tried Cygwin/X?
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I've had this work, but part of the attraction of the Linux layer in Windows for me is not having to mess with the whole cygwin layer on top of everything. Keeping it running and updated was a bit of a pain and it's been nice not to have to mess with anymore.
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Xming was last updated in 2016, and I use it fairly often just fine even in Windows 10. Works with the Linux subsystem fine.
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Seeing how even hackintosh systems running proper macOS are prone to potential problems, I think software emulation would be even less reliable.
Re:Yes and No (Score:4, Funny)
I doubt that. Windows XP seems pretty stable now, and someday Windows 10 will be just as stable.
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When will Application developers finally cross compile their code to work on linux, and release linux versions of their software?
If they aren't doing it why not?
There. Fixed your question.
Answer: They already are. The entire cloud / internet runs on open code that runs on a nix stack. Steam is available under linux. Open and Libre office run under linux. I've found suitable replacements for almost all software I used to use under linux.
I haven't booted into Windows (at home) in years. If a company just want
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When will Application developers finally cross compile their code to work on linux, and release linux versions of their software?
If they aren't doing it why not?
There. Fixed your question.
Answer: They already are. The entire cloud / internet runs on open code that runs on a nix stack. Steam is available under linux. Open and Libre office run under linux. I've found suitable replacements for almost all software I used to use under linux.
I haven't booted into Windows (at home) in years. If a company just wants to support wall gardens then I'm happy not to use their software.
If you want to spew Apple Hate, then at least man up and invoke the enemy by name!
Oh, and don't insinuate things that aren't true:
1. MacOS NAS NEVER been a "Walled Garden".
2. iOS hasn't been a "Walled Garden" since iOS 8, over FOUR years ago.
Next time, do at least TRY to not embarrass yourself.
Re:Yes and No (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, Linux is zero cost. So it is definitely cheaper than the non-zero cost of pirated Windows. But Linux is also superior. The only reason for Windows is the legacy software.
A significant fraction of people who don't use computers in their job get by with chromebooks. A whole chromebook generation of school children is also growing up.
Re:Yes and No (Score:5, Interesting)
Wrong, wrong, wrong, utterly wrong. About a decade or so ago, my sister, who knows how to use a computer but not how to do any troubleshooting asked me to convert her system from Windows to Ubuntu. Since then, she's asked me for computer help about once or maybe twice a year, mostly about system upgrades. Aside from that, It Just Works.
About three years ago, I did the same for a friend's wife because he doesn't know Linux. Again, It Just Works and she's never needed any assistance. If you can't get Linux to work, either you have hardware problems or you're doing something wrong, and I've no idea which it is in your case.
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And it is unusable garbage (unless you're one of those weirdos who *LIKES* to do everything the hardest way possible).
Wrong, wrong, wrong, utterly wrong. About a decade or so ago, my sister, who knows how to use a computer but not how to do any troubleshooting asked me to convert her system from Windows to Ubuntu. Since then, she's asked me for computer help about once or maybe twice a year, mostly about system upgrades. Aside from that, It Just Works.
About three years ago, I did the same for a friend's wife because he doesn't know Linux. Again, It Just Works and she's never needed any assistance. If you can't get Linux to work, either you have hardware problems or you're doing something wrong, and I've no idea which it is in your case.
Oh, boy! You managed to defined a stable configuration of email client and web browser.
But now, your sister says she wants to try her hand at multitrack audio recording and editing, and she's buying a MIDI keyboard because she heard there are a lot of nice soft-synths she can use.
NOW is she going to be happy?
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Now, now, now, don't forget all of the work she's done with LibreOffice, chairing two annual SF conventions. However, I see your point. Although that's not the type of thing she's interested in, if she were, I'd tell her to
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I certainly wouldn't call it flamebait and I've been using Linux for about 20 years, first in dual boot and as my only OS for the last 11. I can only speak for Fedora and Ubuntu (I use Fedora and do what little tech support my sister needs with Ubuntu.) but generally speaking, you don't need hardware drivers unless you've eithe
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This will probably be labelled flamebait because I'm hurting some Linux users feelings. I don't know where you people buy your hardware, but it must be located in fairy tale land.
My laptop is a Dell, and everything works fine. Only hardware change I've made is to replace the hard drive that came with it with an SSD.
For my desktop, I think everything in it came from Microcenter.
Re:Yes and No (Score:4, Insightful)
If you expect everything to work out of the box, get a mac...
I've had just as many problems getting windows to support random hardware as linux, often the wifi or ethernet is not supported and i have to download the drivers on another system, often old hardware is not supported at all on 64bit windows but does work on 64bit linux. Having to hunt for windows drivers is just as painful, if not more so than linux.
The advantage windows has is being either preinstalled, or provided with a custom made restore image thats already configured for the hardware it ships with. The same is true of macos, it's tailored specifically for the hardware it ships with.
Linux is pretty much the only os that is downloaded and installed separately.
If more general purpose linux systems were available preinstalled then it would be far easier for users. Noone has driver problems with preinstalled chromebooks, android phones or any of the thousands of embedded linux devices out there on the market.
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98% of the people of the world? Not at all.
97% of the people in the world don't even know Linux exists. Would they dislike Linux if they did know? Some would, some wouldn't. Since they don't know about it, drawing conclusions about the relative proportions of users is meaningless.
It may be *your* opinion that Linux is unusable garbage. But then again, that's the opinion of someone who thinks that they are qualified to judge the opinions of billions of people who *have* no opinions, so forgive me if I d
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it could be another form of Windows that's not recording everything I do, installing applications without permission, deleting files without permission, etc.
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There's never a 1 for 1 replacement. And if you want to develop stuff in Visual Studio doing dotNet and things like that, you're barking up the wrong tree.
But IDEs? Linux has plenty of them, and some are even pretty mature.
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The current Eclipse is 4.7.2 or so.
I used a much older version with the nickname of "Helios" or something like that and 7 years ago I was able to set it up to debug a Fortran app that called C++ libraries that call Fortran libraries. I also debugged Java apps that called C++ libraries which, I think, called Fortran libraries. I was able to step from a call in one language to the library in another language, track, and even modify the variables at different levels and see the results in the other language
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Eclipse is the grand daddy.
And, of course, Emacs is the great grand daddy.
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<flame value="on">
Emacs is a great OS. All it needs is a good text editor.
</flame>
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Indeed. Eclipse is every bit as polished as Visual Studio, and is there a programming environment that isn't supported?
Applications still not ported after 7+ years (Score:5, Insightful)
The "doesn't run ____" is fixed by spending a little time looking at Linux software till you find a replacement.
Since I posted this list of applications that are not ported to GNU/Linux [slashdot.org] several years ago, Netflix has become ported. But the majority have not been. So what replacement would you recommend for each of the following?
Adobe Photoshop, including adjustment layers, print color matching, and full compatibility with PSD files you receive from clients or team members
Adobe Animate (formerly Flash), including exporting vector animations to HTML5
TurboTax
Stone Edge Order Manager
Sonic Mania
Diablo III
StarCraft II
Street Fighter V
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Re:Applications still not ported after 7+ years (Score:4, Funny)
A girlfriend
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You can use TurboTax on the web for nearly all use cases.
Games do not interoperate; use cases explained (Score:3)
Half your list is games, there are now LOTS of good games that run on Linux. If you look around you can find games like those on your list.
But none that are network-compatible with those on my list. Unlike business software, whose users can collaborate through a shared file format, different games do not interoperate in multiplayer. A user would have to get all his friends to purchase a different game and switch from their preferred game to that (possibly inferior) game.
I don't know your use case for Stone Edge so kind of hard for me to find a drop in replacement.
Consider the e-commerce back end of a toy shop. Tasks include adding and updating product information, taking orders from customers in person (POS), importing customer orders f
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You also just need to learn some basic commands first then you never have to "trust someone's commands". There is this magic command "man" all you have to do is type "man ______" filling in the blank with whatever command you want to know about. Suddenly you have the manual. After a few times of following a tutorial and using "man" on e
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Are you certain that this spying behavior isn't built into the DLLs that Windows libraries depend on? Or compiled into the apps themselves as static libs?
If you want a secure system, you have to inspect every component that you touch.
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Why is this even a question? If you want to run your Windows 10 applications, why don't you simply use Windows? Why switch to Linux if you just want it to be another form of Windows?
The applications are not the OS. Wanting to run a common application that runs easily in Windows is not the same as wanting to run Windows. Since this is Slashdot maybe a stupid car analogy will help.
Suppose operating systems were cars and applications were features in the cars. Microsoft makes cars and ValveCo makes valves and caps that fit on the gas tanks but they only make them for Microsoft cars. Gas stations have licensing agreements and if you go to one its nozzle almost certainly fits a ValveCo
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Your analogy is flawed. You bloody well know if you want to run a MS app, you run it on windows.
Some development might be cross platform, but only because they made the effort.
Stop trying to say it's all the same. The base OS is not all the same. Learning how to use the APIs is not all the same.
And I say this as someone who hates and loathes windows and used to run linux/wine on my laptops since before 2000, and now use OSX as my main desktop platform.
No (Score:5, Insightful)
Next dumb question?
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I don't agree. Why shouldn't there be some kind of "App runtime" that provided a sandbox and basic UI components that were standardized across platforms? I mean no, not stuff like antivirus or a device driver, but rather an email program or a reminders app or a video chat program. The same kind of stuff we abuse web browsers for today?
There have been tons of such runtimes but nobody ever really launched one for general purpose computing. Think of the potential of Flash (yuck) without the browser, or Qt or S
Steam! (Score:2)
Oh wait, no, SOMEBODY DID do it: Steam. If you install Steam for Windows, Mac or Linux I think you can run any Steam game exactly the same on any of the three.
Nobody has created a Steam word processor or a Steam photo editor... but I can't see any compelling reason not to.
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Oh wait, no, SOMEBODY DID do it: Steam. If you install Steam for Windows, Mac or Linux I think you can run any Steam game exactly the same on any of the three.
Nobody has created a Steam word processor or a Steam photo editor... but I can't see any compelling reason not to.
Steam apps are not cross-platform unless the developer builds support for that platform into their app. Most Steam games run only on Windows.
Ecma standardized the CLR (Score:2)
Why shouldn't there be some kind of "App runtime" that provided a sandbox and basic UI components that were standardized across platforms?
There is. It's called the Common Language Runtime, standardized by Ecma International. Microsoft maintains .NET Framework, a CLR application player for Windows. An open source project maintains Mono, a CLR application player for GNU/Linux and macOS.
Oracle [bought a company that] previously tried the same thing with Java, but several policy missteps by Oracle have since dissuaded many from the Java platform.
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"Will it" is a different question.
When a manager or market droid asks "could we make our software to X?", my answer sometimes is: "Yes! It could! It's software. We can make it do anything. It's just a question of time and money. How much of each did you want to spend?"
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Displaying a website, mail, picture or video using Linux gives the same result as doing it on OSX or Windows.
Similar for printing it.
If there is a problem it would be with the awful Open Document implementation of Microsoft Office, not with Linux or it's Office suites.
Also, most of the internet is connected using Linux or other Unix like computers and any type of media or document passes through them without problem.
God I hope NOT! (Score:2)
Linux will lose most of its security advantages if it ever runs Windows software off the shelf (especially those viruses, trojans and ransomeware).
Those emulation layers are PROTECTION from the scourge of Win32. If I ever need Windows, I'll do it in VirtualBox with a fresh dev VM from http://modern.ie/ [modern.ie] then nuke the image the minute I'm done.
What apps are preventing Linux desktop adoption? (Score:2)
Personally I have a been using Linux as by desktop for 2 years (Redhat/Mate). I have Windows on as dual boot. I had to dual boot twice in that time - just to use IE due to poorly designed websites. I know my work process is different than others. I know many must have the Adobe suite of tools, or maybe Quickbooks, other than that what App/Tools do others must-have these days to keep Windows around? Just curious.
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A lot of people pick up these walled garden platforms now. For instance Slack (for work chat) is very popular along with the Microsoft suite of Office/OneDrive.
People rail against these platform companies but they offer a lot of productive features when working in teams.
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For what you're doing - why dual-boot? A VM would serve just as well.
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Yeah that is an option. From what I understand I would need a MS Windows license to run in a VM... Don't want to do that.
Two disadvantages of a virtual machine (Score:2)
why dual-boot? A VM would serve just as well.
Dual booting has two advantages over a virtual machine that for some may outweigh the inconvenience of rebooting:
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XCode (for iOS development) requires OSX. Visual Studio (for ASP.NET development) requires Windows (although the editor has been opensourced and works on Linux).
Also, a lot of clients still want Windows applications, so all the work I do for them.
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Visual Studio Code is the editor that comes with Visual Studio. But yes, that's what I'm referring to. I think it's a good editor, but the whole IDE obviously adds a lot.
It's not apps (Score:3)
On the plus side Linux _is_ competition. Microsoft was forced to drop prices substantially on a Windows license. On the downside this lead to them doing all sorts of nasty stuff to monetize Windows (subscription fees for business editions, installing demo software without permission, the Windows Store, etc, etc).
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Even ASUS in the height of their Linux adventure, was selling side-by-side Windows and Linux installed models that were identical externally, down to the same model, but the Linux model had more RAM to justify having both the same price. (yeah, it did not make sense even at the time)
Anyway, netbooks lived with the limitations of the technology of the time. Nowadays e
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I use the Esri ArcGIS suite quite a lot in my work. There are open-source alternatives to many of its functions, but they're not always practical to use while maintaining interoperability with colleagues. That's the main one that comes to mind, but there are other spatial tools like Crimestat that I use on occasion that only have Windows binaries. It may be possible to run some of these things using Wine or whatever, but I haven't tried.
I have both a Windows 7 and an Ubuntu desktop with dual displays and us
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Rocksmith 2014 is the last program that I use regularly that requires windows and keeps me from switching. The other issue is time. Linux has continued to improve but it isn't the turnkey solution that windows is. The time it takes me to get all the little issues working stops me from using it. It also stops my extended family from using it. It can work 99% of the time but that one time it doesn't work they'll want windows back.
I've upgraded all my computers to Windows 10 Pro and have not noticed the issues
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Stupid idea (Score:2)
Even using Wine lets you get some of the badware infections. Why on earth would I want that?
Far better to get enough people moved over to real opsys so that software vendors will support them.
Of course, they'll find out their ch
Wrong Question (Score:4, Interesting)
Could WIndows and Mac ever become fully compatible with Linux software?
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Insecure (Score:2)
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What X server software do you use with WSL?
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Could WIndows and Mac ever become fully compatible with Linux software?
There's a lot of unix software which will "configure - make - sudo make install" just fine on Mac. For other stuff that's more complicated, projects like Fink [finkproject.org] or Brew [brew.sh] or MacPorts [macports.org] can often help. And, even if these projects don't offer the software you're looking for, those tools can probably provide the underlying libraries your software requires for building.
(although I have yet to manage to get mlocate installed on my Mac)
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For that matter, could Windows ever be fully compatible with Windows software?
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No (Score:3)
No, because OSX and Windows 10 contains proprietary code and probably 3rd party licensed code that Apple, Microsoft and their partners will never license under a free (libre) license that is usable in a Linux distribution. Projects like WINE will never be 100% compatible because they are trying to implement a moving target. As soon as they have reproduced the old API, there is a new not fully compatible API they have to work towards.
Fully compatable? No. Mostly? Possibly. (Score:2)
Additional Questions. (Score:2)
Can Windows be fully compatible with Windows Software
Can OSX be fully compatible with OS X Software
Normally whenever the OS gets an upgrade, legacy compatibility is broken, or security patches are in place, which may prevent some software using that vulnerability as a core of its function.
To have full compatibility or 99.9% compatibility. You are in essence virtualization an other OS in Linux.
Tools like Wine which offer a compatibility layer, does so at a cost of redirecting system calls to a compatibility
WINE (Score:3, Informative)
Nope (Score:2)
Step out of the technical realm and try to understand economics.
A whole metric ton of said software and functionalities only came to Macs and Windows PCs because there was financial incentive for it, when not direct sponsorship from the OS companies themselves.
Deals with Apple and Microsoft, bundling schemes, the estabilished potential market, marketing itself...
Hardware is pretty much like that too... high end features are often paid for and made exclusively for, when not directly developed by Apple and Mi
Yes! (Score:2)
With billions of dollars in funding, we could fund developers to successfully implement all the APIs needed to make Linux a desktop alternative that runs Windows and OSX applications. Without significant funding, it's not going to happen but it definitely could be done.
No, never! Better options... (Score:3)
The better option is to find open source options for each of the windows type applications that are considered "essential".
Openoffice or what ever the current variation is, provides a majority of the applications typical users need.
Gimp provides another alternative, and so and so on.
Trying to run apps natively is folly. Better to get or make better alternatives to required functions.
Back in the day Wordstar was the required application until it was supplanted by Word. It can be done.
Also, don't go the dual boot route. Commit to linux and run it at all times. That is the way to find solutions to all the little programs people think they need.
Do Developers want to be compatible? (Score:5, Insightful)
Software can be cross-platform if that's one of the goals of the developer.
VLC [wikipedia.org] is the best video player out there -- and it works for Linux/Windows/MacOS. So is Libre Office and Microsoft has even managed develop a cross-platform code editor [wikipedia.org] -- and each one is in an entirely different programming language (C++/Java/Javascript respectively).
Will there be a day when developers mostly write cross-platform software? One can hope.
why, dumb question, why? (Score:2)
> Could Linux ever be made to become fully compatible with all Windows and Mac software?
You have it backwards. Software runs on the OS, so it is the software's responsibility to run on the OS, not the other way around. Adobe would have to write CC for Linux for this to work. MS would have to write Office for Linux for this to work. Etc.
> What I mean is a Linux distro that lets you successfully install/run/play just about
> anything significant that says "for Windows 10" or "for OSX" under Linux,...
W
not really (Score:2)
It's not really going to be perfect unless there's an abstraction layer (like a JVM or a browser) between the OS and the application. Native support is still important, but clearly less so than it was a decade ago.
Huh? What are you talking about (Score:2)
They already are compatible. Have been for decades. I save a text file on linux, open on my pc, I can read it. Linux machine can browse the same websites, edit the same files, leverage the same protocols... So what exactly are you asking for? Run a single app binary on linux mac/windows? Java.
Mistating the situation (Score:3)
Computer literate people with some tech skills also like to use it as their desktop OS.
No, People with a lot of tech skills who don't mind spending a lot of time manually adjusting things on their computer use Linux as their desktop OS. People with better things to do use Windows or OS X.
But most "everyday computer users" or "casual computer buyers" still feel they have to choose either a Windows PC or an Apple device as the platform they will do their computing on.
No, most "everyday computer users" or "casual computer buyers" don't know or care about Linux and those that do know there are too many things in Linux require a lot of tech knowledge and the ability to use the command line that they don't wish to learn.
This binary choice exists largely because of very specific commercial list of programs and games available for these OSs that is not available for Linux.
The problem is the mindset of the Linux faithful.
"Closed source applications are EVIL!"
"Software should be free!"
"We want source code!"
"You need help?!? RTFM, you fucking n00b!"
"No one should use Windoze! You want us to make Linux more user friendly and accessible? Fuck you, Windoze Luzer!"
Until Linux gets a larger desktop user base, those applications you want to see on Linux won't be available because there is no profit in it. Linux won't get a larger desktop user base until the community gets it's collective head out of it's ass. Until then, the only hope for Linux on the desktop is a killer app and I don't see that coming anytime soon.
Bottom line, almost all Linux development is geared toward server use and even the people who want to see Linux succeed on the desktop either can't or won't do what is necessary to see it happen.
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Wrong, I've been using a Linux desktop as my main home platform for almost 20 year and I can have a new desktop up and function in less than 25 minutes, much less than it takes to set up a windows box.
Please (Score:2)
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Maybe 99.9999% compatible, but that 0.0001% could make it crash or give wrong results.
Thus was the pain of running third party Win95 applications on top of WinXP. But we accepted it and survived.
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Almost every one of Adobe's Creative Cloud products are for both Windows and OSX. What would they have to lose by selling Linux versions as well?
I guarantee you they have spent many times your annual paycheck in order to evaluate if they'll number of licenses they sell for Linux will pay off the development costs of making Linux versions of their desktop software.
For a totally contrary perspective to your argument, in the "enterprise" space (Microsoft Azure and Adobe Marketing Cloud respectively) both compa